Oil Ministry sets up panel to probe output delay from ONGC’s Krishna-Godavari block

Nishit Shukla
NEW DELHI: The oil ministry has set up an enquiry committee headed by Director General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) to investigate the inordinate delay in production from ONGC’s Krishna-Godavari block, top government sources said. Apart from the DGH, the three-member committee will have the financial advisor and a director in the ministry. In a letter to ONGC, the committee has directed ONGC to explain the delay in production from the block. ONGC will now have to submit a chronology of events in the block.

ONGC chairman DK Sarraf declined to comment on the formation of this committee when contacted by ET. ONGC has faced widespread criticism for not producing any gas from this block in many years. Reliance, which operates the adjoining KG-D6 block, has produced natural gas from its deep-sea field for five years. But it has faced severe scrutiny by the national auditor and the government.

Officials say that the earliest possibility of any gas from the ONGC block may take place only in 2017. While ONGC has not produced any gas, it has taken an aggressive position and accused Reliance of drawing gas from the state-firm’s fields. It has even taken the oil ministry to the court accusing of not protecting ONGC’s interests. ONGC executives say the government is probably acting under pressure from the prime minister, who wants domestic output to rise.

Earlier this year, RIL told the Supreme Court that vested interests were targeting the company that had done the maximum exploration and produced gas quickly while there was no scrutiny of state-run ONGC, which found gas in the same basin, raised its cost many times and produced nothing in 18 years.

Reliance lawyer Harish Salve had said: “From information available in public domain only, ONGC’s fields G1 and GS 15, a project in the vicinity of KG-D6, show revision of project cost estimates and completion period multiple times and should also have been subjected to scrutiny.”